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Winterfair Gifts
"Winterfair Gifts", written by Lois McMaster Bujold and published by New American Library in February 2004 as part of the short story collection Irresistible Forces, is a novella in the universe of the Vorkosigan Saga. It has also been collected as part of the Miles in Love omnibus. Chronologically, it follows A Civil Campaign and is followed by Diplomatic Immunity. Blackstone Audio published an audio version in 2008, read by Grover Gardner. "Winterfair Gifts" was nominated for the Hugo Award for best Novella and took second place for a Sapphire Award for short fiction in 2005. It was also named the 2005 Fictionwise eBook of the Year. Plot Summary The tale is told from the point of view of Armsman Roic. When Miles Vorkosigan and Ekaterin Vorsoisson scheduled their wedding for Winterfair, they chose to have an outdoor ceremony in their new garden, complete with ice sculptures and frosted icicles on the trees. Invited guests included Elena Bothari-Jesek, her husband Baz, Arde Mayhew, and Sergeant Taura, a huge genetically-engineered super-soldier. On the side, Miles was finishing up the work for one of his investigations – a Lord Vorbataille had been heavily involved with Jacksonian smugglers and ended up mixed up with the hijacking of at least one ship, the Princess Olivia. He had been arrested, but what of his Jacksonian co-conspirators? Armsman Roic, the youngest and most junior of the Vorkosigan armsmen, normally served night watch for the household. However, with the press of needs for the upcoming wedding, he received the task of watching over Taura – in particular, he was to keep the locals from giving her trouble on account of her apparent mutieness. This proved difficult: On their first journey into Vorbarr Sultana – to a modiste to replace Taura's wardrobe with more suitable items – a restaurant break turned traumatic when Taura's appearance badly frightened a small child and her mother. Over the several days before the wedding, Roic found himself growing attracted to Taura; difficulties followed as he learned (the hard way) to question his own anti-mutie prejudices. Several incidents showed him just how unthinking he was in these matters. On the day before the wedding, Miles and Ekaterin looked over their presents. Two of them were from Admiral Elli Quinn – a fancy and expensive black cat blanket and a lovely necklace of pearls from Earth. By evening, Ekaterin was seriously ill. That night, while Roic was doing night-guard duty, Taura sneaked over to the wedding present table. Roic followed and saw her steal the pearl necklace. The two of them talked; as it turned out, she was deeply troubled – the pearls appeared strangely dirty to her genetically-enhanced vision and Ekaterin's illness had fallen suspiciously close to when she touched the gift. So, she wanted to check them out. But the thought that Elli would do such a thing to Miles was repugnant to her; she also wanted her suspicions not to be true. Thus, her plan was to check them out secretly. Roic talked her into going to ImpSec with her concerns instead; they showed up, collected all the presents, and began investigating. Sure enough, Ekaterin had fallen ill because she had been in contact with a potent nerve toxin that had been painted onto the pearls. ImpSec successfully tracked the Jacksonian connection through the purchase of the necklace and arrested Luca Tarpan, the originator of the plot. Miles and Ekaterin were married the following day, with Taura standing as the Bride's second. That night Roic and Taura began a romantic relationship. Tidbits It is possible that the very happy ice bunnies' positions correspond to Cordelia's "Number Nine" observation about Barrayaran Society's various taboos. Major Characters *Armsman Roic *Taura Supporting Characters *Miles Vorkosigan *Ekaterin Vorsoisson *Armsman Pym *Alys Vorpatril Minor Characters *Guy Allegre *Cordelia Vorkosigan *Aral Vorkosigan *Simon Illyan *Ivan Vorpatril See also *''Irresistible Forces'' *''Miles in Love'' Category:Short stories Category:Vorkosigan Saga